Good Friday is always the hardest day of the year for me: this the worst year ever. Yesterday started well with lovely MP from St Martin’s Liskeard; after that, a long fall. But what is faith worth if one never doubts? Hard to share, but “sometimes it’s right to be vulnerable”. And even in the Pit I share the Auschwitz cell wall scrawl: “I believe in God even when He is silent”. And this morning? A song I wrote 5 years ago came to me: words and a capella song attached. Easter is nearly here.
This Blog is mined rather from the depths – Good Friday, always sombre, always a time for soul searching seems the culmination of many days of just that- of concern, frustration, uselessness, worry, grief and all manner of understandable emotions. Amongst the anguish of the suffering of those on the front line of the virus issues whether patient or carer, politician or bureaucrat policeman or shop worker we look for sense and for positives as we clap the NHS meet on ZOOM and attempt to prepare stuff for others they might find useful.
The pictures of rainbows have sprung up all over the place and I note these fall into two camps; rainbows of hope and support and rainbows of threat (e.g. if you can see this rainbow you should not be out- F@@! off home – the latter trend is rather sad although understandable as fear takes over. As Christians we always have hope – we have to have hope even in the depths of desolation of Good Friday.
A little light relief in the next column….. my granddaughter suffering the effects of lock-down and missing the rest of the family set us all a challenge to recreate a work of art- the pictures are our attempts- you will have to guess which one is me! Life has to go on.
I am very grateful to Roy for his Sunday Scribblings which are now posted as PDF files to make them easier to read and to Tony for his Way of the Cross presentations available as a PowerPoint or a PDF file.
Last Monday some of us had an experimental Chaplains Coffee and Conversation on Zoom which I plan to have as an open session for the coming weeks. I will put the link invitation in an email rather than on this page fr obvious reasons. Please feel fee to drop in and say hello…. meet a few readers and possibly arrange your own conversations away from the crowd.
I have been starting each day at first light with a long solitary work – often accompanied by David Suchet reading the NIV Bible – which has been useful though concentrating on rough paths and listening to Romans is interesting to say the least.
Final thought – if you happen to listen to Radio Cornwall and you do so on Sunday afternoon at about half past three you may just hear my dulcet tones as I cat and possibly sing!
Tony LeFevre
Link to the PowerPoint Presentation of the whole Stations text and pictures
Link to the PDF File of the whole Stations text and pictures
The Way of the Cross
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves
and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and
those who lose their life for my sake will find it.
Matthew 16.24,25
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of
Christ. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down
the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.
Ephesians 2.13,14
Almighty and everlasting God, who in your tender love towards the human race sent your Son
our Saviour Jesus Christ to take upon him our flesh and to suffer death upon the cross: grant
that we may follow the example of his patience and humility, and also be made partakers of his
resurrection; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the
unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Holy God, holy and strong, holy and immortal, have mercy upon us.
First Station: Jesus in agony in the Garden of Gethsemane
Second Station: Jesus betrayed by Judas and arrested
Third Station: Jesus condemned by the Sanhedrin
Fourth Station: Peter denies Jesus
Fifth Station: Jesus judged by Pilate
Sixth Station: Jesus scourged and crowned with thorns
Seventh Station: Jesus carries the cross
Eighth Station: Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus to carry the cross
Ninth Station: Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem
Tenth Station: Jesus is crucified
Eleventh Station: Jesus promises the kingdom to the penitent thief
Twelfth Station: Jesus on the cross; his mother and his friend
Thirteenth Station: Jesus dies on the cross
Fourteenth Station: Jesus laid in the tomb
Fifteenth Station: Jesus risen from the dead
Zoom – getting started / basics
April 2020
There are various ways to join a zoom meeting.
- The easiest method for you to use if you are only ATTENDING a meeting and not creating a meeting invite yourselves is to click on the link that will be provided for you in the meeting invitation before the meeting is due to start. Then follow the steps below:
- Once you have clicked on the link, you will be taken automatically to the zoom application in order to access the meeting
- There will be a pop up window on screen saying “this site is trying to open zoom meetings,” click “open”
- You should then see a pop up window – click on “join with video” if your computer has a camera and another prompt to click on “join with computer audio”
- You should then be in the meeting. You can choose to disable/enable your camera (you will see a camera icon at the bottom of your screen to click on.) And there will be an icon and option at the top right hand corner to enter full screen mode, speaker mode or gallery mode (the latter shows a selection of participants – as many as can fit on the screen).
Mute / unmute your microphone
- Muting cancels out unnecessary background noise making it easier to hear the speaker more clearly, you may be muted automatically at the beginning of meetings
- Click or tap on the mute button to mute yourself and on the unmute button to speak when invited by the host, although the host can also control this function for everyone.
- Please note, if you have a very old computer that does not have a microphone built in then it is likely you will be unable to join the meeting from your computer. If this is the case and you have a smart phone we advise you access the meeting using the same link on your phone.
- If your Wi-Fi signal is not very strong or consistent you may find it easier to join with audio only and not video
- Or you can Register for a free Zoom account
Go to https://zoom.us/ and follow the sign-up steps (this step is only required if you need to create meetings rather than just attend)
- Or Download the free Zoom client/app
- From a PC / Laptop – go to https://zoom.us/download#client_4meeting and download Zoom client for meetings
- From a Tablet / Mobile Device – go to the app store and download Zoom app
- Join your meeting proper
- A link will be emailed to you, sign-in to your account, click the link and join the meeting
- Suggestion – to familiarise yourselves with zoom if it’s new. Set-up a trial meeting with friends/family to test it out
- log-in to your account, select schedule and follow the steps to generate your meeting link which you can then copy/paste and email or text to people
- in the meeting – ensure your audio/video is working – if you get stuck, it might help to get Google to help with your issue, there is likely to be advice online and tutorials on YouTube, or you could get in touch with a more tech savvy relative
- if you find that you have slow internet, reduce the amount of devices connected to the internet in your household temporarily and/or run as audio only, having the most up to date version of the app will help to reduce any glitches